findersflanders
5 reviews liked by findersflanders
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
1992
Sonic 2 without the 2?
This one is quite a mixed bag. Definitely a One Step Forward Three Steps Back kinda deal when you compare it to the games that came out before.
Can’t believe they had the balls to put Tails on the Title Screen even though he is effectively nowhere to be seen. You even made these cute little pictures of the two buddies together before every zone and you don’t even get to play as him at all! I did get all the chaos emeralds and I was just met with the most awkward stare down from both of the characters at the end. Talk about unsatisfying, although at least the end credits were kinda nice.
Unfortunately the overworld map is gone so we don’t see how we get from place to place. To be honest the zone structure feels really off in general. Green Hills Zone (yes, Hills, not Hill) is the fourth level for some reason?? It is by far the easiest level so I don’t know why. The first level is underground with lava pits and some very cheery music. I’ve got no problem with trying to go against platformer tropes but this just doesn’t feel like an adventure; some very stock feeling level themes just kinda slapped together.
Speaking of the music, not only do I not really care for any of the tracks (Green Hills being the exception), but they mostly feel like they could be swapped around between each zone and no one would bat an eye. Tracks don’t convey any sense of the environment you’re in (unless the environment is you sitting down staring at an 8-bit game), and hence again, remove any feeling of adventure. This might sound like a harsh criticism but I can’t really forgive it since the previous entry actually did this very well.
Playing the Game Gear version immediately allows you a free pass to use save states wherever you please because when one of the chaos emeralds is quite literally off of the screen it becomes very clear that very little testing was done for this version. And you will be punished for it, because compared to 8-Bit Sonic 1, the challenge has definitely increased. Some of the levels feel a bit more open now with multiple routes. Unfortunately the quality just isn’t quite there…
To go into detail on some of the levels, as I said, mixed bag.
Green Hills has some nice fast sections, but act 3 has horrible blind spring jumps that took me way too many tries than was fun.
Gimmick Mountain (AWFUL NAME) actually uses those spinny things from 16-Bit Scrap Brain and implements them into the level pretty well! It has some challenging platforming sections with conveyors as well. This would probably be the best zone if the Game Gear screen wasn’t cucking me every single jump.
Turns out Aqua Lake (I instinctively typed Labyrinth for a second) was actually the first Zone to introduce putting Sonic inside a bubble and moving him around in a water based stage. I think this is a fun gimmick! Unfortunately the rest of the stage is hot garbage, and I like Labyrinth Zone, both 16-bit and 8-bit. Oh no I don’t like it in Sonic 4 who tf do you think I am you sicko. Anyway it’s a very boring water level outside of the bubbles, and it also looks really ugly.
Scrambled Egg Zone has to be my new least favourite Classic Sonic Zone, it’s just pick a path. Fuck you.
Crystal Egg Zone has to be my SECOND least favourite Classic Sonic Zone! It’s not difficult or bullshit but it’s horrendously ugly and completely nonsensical gameplay wise. This is what I grabbed the emeralds for?
Other gimmicks like the minecarts and hang gliders were alright. Couldn’t figure out the hang gliders really and they seemed pointless. The minecarts were fun to try and jump out at the right time, but this was only done like, two or three times.
Bosses! Again! Mixed. Bag. A couple fun ones and a couple really god awful shit ones! Silver Sonic was by far the best and Eggman was AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WTF who tf why why why it's so bad. Starts off a little confusing and potentially challenging, but once you figure out how it works it just becomes a boring as heck waiting game. It’s also the only boss you’re likely to hear the smoke alarm segment of the boss theme. (I know this probably wasn’t made with headphones in mind but my goodness was that unpleasant to hear.)
To conclude, it’ssssss okay.. leaning towards bad really. Some good gimmicks, some underwhelming. Some good level design, some horrible. Some pretty levels, some ugly. Some fun bosses, some stupid bosses!
A mediocre time but it has its highlights... kinda.
This one is quite a mixed bag. Definitely a One Step Forward Three Steps Back kinda deal when you compare it to the games that came out before.
Can’t believe they had the balls to put Tails on the Title Screen even though he is effectively nowhere to be seen. You even made these cute little pictures of the two buddies together before every zone and you don’t even get to play as him at all! I did get all the chaos emeralds and I was just met with the most awkward stare down from both of the characters at the end. Talk about unsatisfying, although at least the end credits were kinda nice.
Unfortunately the overworld map is gone so we don’t see how we get from place to place. To be honest the zone structure feels really off in general. Green Hills Zone (yes, Hills, not Hill) is the fourth level for some reason?? It is by far the easiest level so I don’t know why. The first level is underground with lava pits and some very cheery music. I’ve got no problem with trying to go against platformer tropes but this just doesn’t feel like an adventure; some very stock feeling level themes just kinda slapped together.
Speaking of the music, not only do I not really care for any of the tracks (Green Hills being the exception), but they mostly feel like they could be swapped around between each zone and no one would bat an eye. Tracks don’t convey any sense of the environment you’re in (unless the environment is you sitting down staring at an 8-bit game), and hence again, remove any feeling of adventure. This might sound like a harsh criticism but I can’t really forgive it since the previous entry actually did this very well.
Playing the Game Gear version immediately allows you a free pass to use save states wherever you please because when one of the chaos emeralds is quite literally off of the screen it becomes very clear that very little testing was done for this version. And you will be punished for it, because compared to 8-Bit Sonic 1, the challenge has definitely increased. Some of the levels feel a bit more open now with multiple routes. Unfortunately the quality just isn’t quite there…
To go into detail on some of the levels, as I said, mixed bag.
Green Hills has some nice fast sections, but act 3 has horrible blind spring jumps that took me way too many tries than was fun.
Gimmick Mountain (AWFUL NAME) actually uses those spinny things from 16-Bit Scrap Brain and implements them into the level pretty well! It has some challenging platforming sections with conveyors as well. This would probably be the best zone if the Game Gear screen wasn’t cucking me every single jump.
Turns out Aqua Lake (I instinctively typed Labyrinth for a second) was actually the first Zone to introduce putting Sonic inside a bubble and moving him around in a water based stage. I think this is a fun gimmick! Unfortunately the rest of the stage is hot garbage, and I like Labyrinth Zone, both 16-bit and 8-bit. Oh no I don’t like it in Sonic 4 who tf do you think I am you sicko. Anyway it’s a very boring water level outside of the bubbles, and it also looks really ugly.
Scrambled Egg Zone has to be my new least favourite Classic Sonic Zone, it’s just pick a path. Fuck you.
Crystal Egg Zone has to be my SECOND least favourite Classic Sonic Zone! It’s not difficult or bullshit but it’s horrendously ugly and completely nonsensical gameplay wise. This is what I grabbed the emeralds for?
Other gimmicks like the minecarts and hang gliders were alright. Couldn’t figure out the hang gliders really and they seemed pointless. The minecarts were fun to try and jump out at the right time, but this was only done like, two or three times.
Bosses! Again! Mixed. Bag. A couple fun ones and a couple really god awful shit ones! Silver Sonic was by far the best and Eggman was AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WTF who tf why why why it's so bad. Starts off a little confusing and potentially challenging, but once you figure out how it works it just becomes a boring as heck waiting game. It’s also the only boss you’re likely to hear the smoke alarm segment of the boss theme. (I know this probably wasn’t made with headphones in mind but my goodness was that unpleasant to hear.)
To conclude, it’ssssss okay.. leaning towards bad really. Some good gimmicks, some underwhelming. Some good level design, some horrible. Some pretty levels, some ugly. Some fun bosses, some stupid bosses!
A mediocre time but it has its highlights... kinda.
Sonic Labyrinth
1995
Labyrinth, come in.
You beat the allegations, my boy. The worst Sonic game allegations, that is. I’m not sure how I should feel about the fact that I had a somewhat decent time playing this game. I played it as a kid and must have never made it past the 2nd stage and all I remember is it feeling SLOW and AWFUL and I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. Which seemed to be the general consensus among players.
Believe it or not, a big motivation to make me finally throw away the money for Sonic Origins Plus was to have another go at these Game Gear games that haunted me on Mega Collection Plus as a kid, as well as the ones that weren’t included there. When I opened up the menu for them, the first thing that caught my eye was the critically acclaimed masterpiece in question, and you know what? It was alright!!! ?? Bit of a stretch maybe. It certainly was not <good> but it was by no means awful neither.
Laughable story premise aside, Sonic is actually kinda fun to control here? I’m not fucking joking. Slow as shit means spin dash encouraged, and you can go real zoomy zoomy, it’s a satisfying challenge to cancel it at the right time. As a speedrun this could be fun as heck I’m tellin’ ya, the most fun I had here were the couple times where I had just grabbed all the keys and had a small amount of time to bolt it towards the goal. I think if the game was built fully around this concept it could have found a real decent identity.
But this is Sonic LABYRINTH, and hence the levels are LABYRINTHs, with doors taking you to all sorts of places, you gotta keep track of where you’re going, kinda fun right? Like a puzzle or a maze?? NO. This actually describes the level design for about 3 of the 12 regular stages, the rest is just random pointless BS. In general it just feels aimless; questionable teleporters, pointless powerups with straight up bad placement, strange enemies that do not look like they should be in a sonic game (truthfully they do kind of fit I just think this one is really funny), and bosses that really could have been much better had someone but a just a little bit more thought into them.
That said it is mostly just aimless, and not frustrating. The only exceptions being one fuck off hidden platform in 3-3, and the general map in 4-3. I mean f*cking look at this. I understand the vision with this final level to be honest, you gave us our Sonic Labyrinth but it’s just jarring without some semblance of a difficulty curve to precede it. You went from somewhat maze-like levels, to aimless bs, to the world’s most complicated stage that feels like a puzzle in itself trying to figure out where to go even when it’s right in front of you. My mate said we should do a drinking game where we play that level without looking at the map and take a drink everytime you go through a door and I admit that sounds like the best worst time and ohohohohhh I am tempted!!
There is the matter of the true ending being a little obtuse but I forgive that because it added a slight layer of replayability with the hint given at the end. That said, it's still hilariously shallow.
The take home today is that I think the game actually has a solid foundation and controls well, it's just mostly ruined by a number of horrible design decisions that scream like the developers did not give any shits whatsoever. Therefore since it's a Sonic game with “good ideas”, it's actually 5 stars and the most underrated game ever and you guys just don't get it you don't see the vision open your mind for once…
Except it doesn’t have many good ideas, it’s just a worse Sonic 3D Blast.
(Maybe more like a prototype, since this came out first, hm!)
You beat the allegations, my boy. The worst Sonic game allegations, that is. I’m not sure how I should feel about the fact that I had a somewhat decent time playing this game. I played it as a kid and must have never made it past the 2nd stage and all I remember is it feeling SLOW and AWFUL and I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. Which seemed to be the general consensus among players.
Believe it or not, a big motivation to make me finally throw away the money for Sonic Origins Plus was to have another go at these Game Gear games that haunted me on Mega Collection Plus as a kid, as well as the ones that weren’t included there. When I opened up the menu for them, the first thing that caught my eye was the critically acclaimed masterpiece in question, and you know what? It was alright!!! ?? Bit of a stretch maybe. It certainly was not <good> but it was by no means awful neither.
Laughable story premise aside, Sonic is actually kinda fun to control here? I’m not fucking joking. Slow as shit means spin dash encouraged, and you can go real zoomy zoomy, it’s a satisfying challenge to cancel it at the right time. As a speedrun this could be fun as heck I’m tellin’ ya, the most fun I had here were the couple times where I had just grabbed all the keys and had a small amount of time to bolt it towards the goal. I think if the game was built fully around this concept it could have found a real decent identity.
But this is Sonic LABYRINTH, and hence the levels are LABYRINTHs, with doors taking you to all sorts of places, you gotta keep track of where you’re going, kinda fun right? Like a puzzle or a maze?? NO. This actually describes the level design for about 3 of the 12 regular stages, the rest is just random pointless BS. In general it just feels aimless; questionable teleporters, pointless powerups with straight up bad placement, strange enemies that do not look like they should be in a sonic game (truthfully they do kind of fit I just think this one is really funny), and bosses that really could have been much better had someone but a just a little bit more thought into them.
That said it is mostly just aimless, and not frustrating. The only exceptions being one fuck off hidden platform in 3-3, and the general map in 4-3. I mean f*cking look at this. I understand the vision with this final level to be honest, you gave us our Sonic Labyrinth but it’s just jarring without some semblance of a difficulty curve to precede it. You went from somewhat maze-like levels, to aimless bs, to the world’s most complicated stage that feels like a puzzle in itself trying to figure out where to go even when it’s right in front of you. My mate said we should do a drinking game where we play that level without looking at the map and take a drink everytime you go through a door and I admit that sounds like the best worst time and ohohohohhh I am tempted!!
There is the matter of the true ending being a little obtuse but I forgive that because it added a slight layer of replayability with the hint given at the end. That said, it's still hilariously shallow.
The take home today is that I think the game actually has a solid foundation and controls well, it's just mostly ruined by a number of horrible design decisions that scream like the developers did not give any shits whatsoever. Therefore since it's a Sonic game with “good ideas”, it's actually 5 stars and the most underrated game ever and you guys just don't get it you don't see the vision open your mind for once…
Except it doesn’t have many good ideas, it’s just a worse Sonic 3D Blast.
(Maybe more like a prototype, since this came out first, hm!)
Devil May Cry 2
2012
LMAO alright im ripping into this game.
90% of the enemies are BRAINDEAD. Some of my favourites include:
- The white wolves that have NO walking animation, the only thing they can do is jump attack, blindly jumping in every direction except for where you are, sometimes they will sit there and do nothing.
- The infested tank that can’t do anything unless you are a certain distance away from it.
- The bat swarms that die to ONE BULLET (big shoutout to the one slow elevator that’s about 30 seconds long, and has a swarm of bats to keep you busy while it’s moving, but the bats will die in 10, so you just sit there).
^ This is not limited to just enemies but half of the bosses are cheesed by either being a certain distance far or a certain distance close. The infested chopper was kind of cool with all the parkouring across buildings, but it still felt aimless and went on for SOOOO long
There is often no indication of what is happening or where to go, and I often just stumbled into an obscure section that put me into a cutscene.
Auto locking onto enemies makes everything you can think of 10x more awkward than it should be, at least add an option to be able to switch it? (just looked it up, apparently you can with an obnoxious input combination of RB + LS, you’re better off just dealing with the awkwardness).
A dynamic moving camera is a cool idea in theory but why does it so often throw itself into the ground it’s like lakitu on shrooms.
No extra weapon movesets/ upgrades?? The upgrades just increase damage i guess - BORING. Less guns as well.
Story is bad and meaningless.
Dante is nothing
Lucia is nothing
Enemy variety is not nearly as interesting. File system is not as in depth.
POSITIVES COMPARED TO DMC1:
Cool sick moves like flips and wallrunning
Devil trigger guns are funny as hell brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
More environments? But theyre shit
More cutscenes? But theyre shit
More boss variety? But the bosses are shit
Played it on vc with friends which made it very fun !
90% of the enemies are BRAINDEAD. Some of my favourites include:
- The white wolves that have NO walking animation, the only thing they can do is jump attack, blindly jumping in every direction except for where you are, sometimes they will sit there and do nothing.
- The infested tank that can’t do anything unless you are a certain distance away from it.
- The bat swarms that die to ONE BULLET (big shoutout to the one slow elevator that’s about 30 seconds long, and has a swarm of bats to keep you busy while it’s moving, but the bats will die in 10, so you just sit there).
^ This is not limited to just enemies but half of the bosses are cheesed by either being a certain distance far or a certain distance close. The infested chopper was kind of cool with all the parkouring across buildings, but it still felt aimless and went on for SOOOO long
There is often no indication of what is happening or where to go, and I often just stumbled into an obscure section that put me into a cutscene.
Auto locking onto enemies makes everything you can think of 10x more awkward than it should be, at least add an option to be able to switch it? (just looked it up, apparently you can with an obnoxious input combination of RB + LS, you’re better off just dealing with the awkwardness).
A dynamic moving camera is a cool idea in theory but why does it so often throw itself into the ground it’s like lakitu on shrooms.
No extra weapon movesets/ upgrades?? The upgrades just increase damage i guess - BORING. Less guns as well.
Story is bad and meaningless.
Dante is nothing
Lucia is nothing
Enemy variety is not nearly as interesting. File system is not as in depth.
POSITIVES COMPARED TO DMC1:
Cool sick moves like flips and wallrunning
Devil trigger guns are funny as hell brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
More environments? But theyre shit
More cutscenes? But theyre shit
More boss variety? But the bosses are shit
Played it on vc with friends which made it very fun !
This review contains spoilers
Man.
I jumped into this really with no idea what to expect. A shorter game supposedly made in just 6 months, that expands on what was originally just going to be a flashback in infinite wealth? Sounds cool enough, but I wasn't ready for what they cooked.
By this point I'm getting very tired of action combat in Yakuza, especially the dragon engine ones. Multiple styles did mean I enjoyed this more than 6 or Kiwami 2, but it still started to wear me down a bit, and in such a short time aswell (It's been over 2 years since I played Yakuza 6!). The agent stuff is pretty cool at first but half of it felt awkward in practice. Hopefully Judgment and Ishin will offer something different when I get to those but I've got no expectations for action combat in these games anymore, it's mostly just something to keep your fingers busy.
The side content is a mixed bag, substories were mostly uninteresting with a couple (I counted 2?) standout great ones. Support map is... yeah. Minigames are the same as always (Although cabaret got some good laughs out of me). The biggest standout is of course the coliseum, being the best we've seen up to now. Even saying that, when I got to the end of chapter 3 I had done about 75% of the side content and decided I didn't care anymore and just focused the story.
So all these things I didn't like, and still such a high rating? Well for a 6 month game I really can't be all that upset with what we got, it's still generally fun and different enough so I appreciate it! The only thing left to talk about is the story... and what a story it is.
I thought Yakuza 6 was a nice ending to Kiryu's story, but Gaiden smashes all that against the wall. Throughout the game I generally thought the story was interesting, I enjoyed all of the characters quite a bit, Akame being a standout. Still I didn't think it was amazing, and then around the later end of chapter 4 shit just starts to peak so hard and pull everything together. The final chapters do wonders for Kiryu, Tsuruno, Hanawa and Nishitani, and the way it ties in with Yakuza 7 retrospectively is so amazing. I now appreciate the dissolution of the yakuza so much more than the last game ever made me, this game gave it so much meaning, and most of it is thanks to Shishido who I dare say is now my favourite antagonist in the whole series (I'm sorry Ryuji). Despite literally just being "a yakuza", Shishido is perfectly written throughout the story into being worthy of representing the embodiment of the yakuza spirit in this final moment and he makes for an incredible final boss fight, with some of the best fight choreography in the series. Funny how after all of this Akame feels like one of the weaker characters!
And of course it needs to be said. The ending just might be the most emotionally damaging scene I've ever seen in any media. I struggle to imagine anyone who's been with Kiryu from the start not to bawl their eyes out at this ending, I certainly did, embarrassingly so.
Even though I found a lot of Gaiden to be average, the final hours were an absolute fucking joyride that, to me, hasn't been reached by the rest of the series, and for that I'll always praise it.
I jumped into this really with no idea what to expect. A shorter game supposedly made in just 6 months, that expands on what was originally just going to be a flashback in infinite wealth? Sounds cool enough, but I wasn't ready for what they cooked.
By this point I'm getting very tired of action combat in Yakuza, especially the dragon engine ones. Multiple styles did mean I enjoyed this more than 6 or Kiwami 2, but it still started to wear me down a bit, and in such a short time aswell (It's been over 2 years since I played Yakuza 6!). The agent stuff is pretty cool at first but half of it felt awkward in practice. Hopefully Judgment and Ishin will offer something different when I get to those but I've got no expectations for action combat in these games anymore, it's mostly just something to keep your fingers busy.
The side content is a mixed bag, substories were mostly uninteresting with a couple (I counted 2?) standout great ones. Support map is... yeah. Minigames are the same as always (Although cabaret got some good laughs out of me). The biggest standout is of course the coliseum, being the best we've seen up to now. Even saying that, when I got to the end of chapter 3 I had done about 75% of the side content and decided I didn't care anymore and just focused the story.
So all these things I didn't like, and still such a high rating? Well for a 6 month game I really can't be all that upset with what we got, it's still generally fun and different enough so I appreciate it! The only thing left to talk about is the story... and what a story it is.
I thought Yakuza 6 was a nice ending to Kiryu's story, but Gaiden smashes all that against the wall. Throughout the game I generally thought the story was interesting, I enjoyed all of the characters quite a bit, Akame being a standout. Still I didn't think it was amazing, and then around the later end of chapter 4 shit just starts to peak so hard and pull everything together. The final chapters do wonders for Kiryu, Tsuruno, Hanawa and Nishitani, and the way it ties in with Yakuza 7 retrospectively is so amazing. I now appreciate the dissolution of the yakuza so much more than the last game ever made me, this game gave it so much meaning, and most of it is thanks to Shishido who I dare say is now my favourite antagonist in the whole series (I'm sorry Ryuji). Despite literally just being "a yakuza", Shishido is perfectly written throughout the story into being worthy of representing the embodiment of the yakuza spirit in this final moment and he makes for an incredible final boss fight, with some of the best fight choreography in the series. Funny how after all of this Akame feels like one of the weaker characters!
And of course it needs to be said. The ending just might be the most emotionally damaging scene I've ever seen in any media. I struggle to imagine anyone who's been with Kiryu from the start not to bawl their eyes out at this ending, I certainly did, embarrassingly so.
Even though I found a lot of Gaiden to be average, the final hours were an absolute fucking joyride that, to me, hasn't been reached by the rest of the series, and for that I'll always praise it.
I enjoyed this game a lot. I finished it before I made an account here but now that I'm playing Gaiden, I realise I still have a lot of things I want to say about it.
Let's start off with the elephant in the room. Maybe it came from playing the 7 previous titles back to back within two years, but I'm quite surprised to now find myself being much more engaged with the new turn based combat in yakuza than the old action combat. For RGGs first attempt, it's a little rough around the edges, but for everything new and crazy that it does for the genre (that I have seen), it's nothing short of outstanding. It's not the most balanced, but for a casual playthrough it'll do, since in my experience, the previous entries were never balanced anyway (It was either just right or a complete cake walk based on how much side content you did). I didn't appreciate the random level spike that forces you to grind, and most "dungeons" were not interesting scenery wise. They have room to improve these things as the series goes forward.
The most commendable part of this is I don't think the combat could be nearly as enjoyable if RGG didn't decide to take a risk and fully embrace the thing that has given this series it's identity: the silly.
Yakuza has always hit that perfect blend of "serious crime game" and "wtf?". Or has it? Yes I think it always has, but we've had so many of those at this point now. What's the harm in trying something different and just going balls out on the wtf? If it doesn't work then you have a formula to fall back on, but here it does work, so so well. Classes and special moves, enemy designs, items, everything you see in the core gameplay is absolutely even more over the top ridiculous and feels like such a breath of fresh air from the same "smashing a head against the wall" heat move or the same x-x-x-y combo that we've seen previously. And the key thing that holds all these things together so well is... a complete dumbass of a protagonist.
Seeing this universe through the eyes of a Dragon Quest nerd has to be one of the most genius ways to turn this franchise on it's head. Ichiban is just a lovable dude who somehow makes his way through the modern yakuza world despite barely having the pre-requisites to do so, and you can't help but cheer him on every step of the way thanks to his charisma, no matter how weird things get.
I will admit that despite my praise for the new direction and protagonist, my biggest disappointment in this game comes from what this does for the game's main story. I don't think it's bad but just a bit... uninteresting? I won't go into detail but my favourite things about it were the bonds that Ichi makes, the journey he goes through, and the lessons he learns (all of this is great). Other than that, everything I enjoyed in other Yakuza plots felt undercooked here, and I think part of it is due to the new tone. I think most of the villains aren't memorable at all since they show up very irregularly; the pacing is really off and some chapters are very focused on new characters, feeling fairly separate from the main plot. Sometimes the party members feel like they were stuck into parts of the story for the sake of tagging along into the gameplay, in classic JRPG fashion it all comes down to the power of friendship in the end. However I understand that this is a give and take with respect to making the new direction work at all, and it is my hope that with the characters now introduced, and a wildly new setting in infinite wealth, it will feel more like the gameplay is built around the story rather than the other way around.
On to side content, this is by far the best I've seen from the series and one of this game's biggest strengths in my opinion. The substory writing is top tier and there's plenty of new minigames that don't actually feel like a waste of time thanks to the links with RPG mechanics. And the main business minigame doesn't completely suck (huge win)! It could partly be due to me taking my biggest break from the series between 6 and this, but this was the most I've enjoyed, felt rewarded and felt compelled to do as much side content as possible in the series. Not to mention that the new setting of Yokohama is insane compared to anything seen prior in terms of sheer size.
I'm not a huge fan of the music direction the series is taking with all the dubstep, EDM, etc. But I can't deny that it fits the tone of the game pretty well and I do like some of the tracks.
So yeah, the TL;DR is I think this was an incredible step forward for the franchise just by virtue of being different. It's rough in some areas (Story didn't hit me as hard as others in the series but had it's moments and overall enjoyable) but it's an impressive first try and I'm very very excited for Infinite Wealth.
Let's start off with the elephant in the room. Maybe it came from playing the 7 previous titles back to back within two years, but I'm quite surprised to now find myself being much more engaged with the new turn based combat in yakuza than the old action combat. For RGGs first attempt, it's a little rough around the edges, but for everything new and crazy that it does for the genre (that I have seen), it's nothing short of outstanding. It's not the most balanced, but for a casual playthrough it'll do, since in my experience, the previous entries were never balanced anyway (It was either just right or a complete cake walk based on how much side content you did). I didn't appreciate the random level spike that forces you to grind, and most "dungeons" were not interesting scenery wise. They have room to improve these things as the series goes forward.
The most commendable part of this is I don't think the combat could be nearly as enjoyable if RGG didn't decide to take a risk and fully embrace the thing that has given this series it's identity: the silly.
Yakuza has always hit that perfect blend of "serious crime game" and "wtf?". Or has it? Yes I think it always has, but we've had so many of those at this point now. What's the harm in trying something different and just going balls out on the wtf? If it doesn't work then you have a formula to fall back on, but here it does work, so so well. Classes and special moves, enemy designs, items, everything you see in the core gameplay is absolutely even more over the top ridiculous and feels like such a breath of fresh air from the same "smashing a head against the wall" heat move or the same x-x-x-y combo that we've seen previously. And the key thing that holds all these things together so well is... a complete dumbass of a protagonist.
Seeing this universe through the eyes of a Dragon Quest nerd has to be one of the most genius ways to turn this franchise on it's head. Ichiban is just a lovable dude who somehow makes his way through the modern yakuza world despite barely having the pre-requisites to do so, and you can't help but cheer him on every step of the way thanks to his charisma, no matter how weird things get.
I will admit that despite my praise for the new direction and protagonist, my biggest disappointment in this game comes from what this does for the game's main story. I don't think it's bad but just a bit... uninteresting? I won't go into detail but my favourite things about it were the bonds that Ichi makes, the journey he goes through, and the lessons he learns (all of this is great). Other than that, everything I enjoyed in other Yakuza plots felt undercooked here, and I think part of it is due to the new tone. I think most of the villains aren't memorable at all since they show up very irregularly; the pacing is really off and some chapters are very focused on new characters, feeling fairly separate from the main plot. Sometimes the party members feel like they were stuck into parts of the story for the sake of tagging along into the gameplay, in classic JRPG fashion it all comes down to the power of friendship in the end. However I understand that this is a give and take with respect to making the new direction work at all, and it is my hope that with the characters now introduced, and a wildly new setting in infinite wealth, it will feel more like the gameplay is built around the story rather than the other way around.
On to side content, this is by far the best I've seen from the series and one of this game's biggest strengths in my opinion. The substory writing is top tier and there's plenty of new minigames that don't actually feel like a waste of time thanks to the links with RPG mechanics. And the main business minigame doesn't completely suck (huge win)! It could partly be due to me taking my biggest break from the series between 6 and this, but this was the most I've enjoyed, felt rewarded and felt compelled to do as much side content as possible in the series. Not to mention that the new setting of Yokohama is insane compared to anything seen prior in terms of sheer size.
I'm not a huge fan of the music direction the series is taking with all the dubstep, EDM, etc. But I can't deny that it fits the tone of the game pretty well and I do like some of the tracks.
So yeah, the TL;DR is I think this was an incredible step forward for the franchise just by virtue of being different. It's rough in some areas (Story didn't hit me as hard as others in the series but had it's moments and overall enjoyable) but it's an impressive first try and I'm very very excited for Infinite Wealth.